Ride Along: How Kevin Hart and Ice Cube Became Friends

Ride Along, directed by Tim Story

Ride Along is about a young man named Ben (a very funny Kevin Hart) who wants to be an Atlanta policeman. He is currently working as a security guard at a high school. Ben has applied to the Police Department, and has been accepted into Atlanta’s Police Academy. Ben wants to marry his girlfriend Angela (Tika Sumpter).  Angela’s brother James (Ice Cube) is an Atlanta policeman. To prove he’s worthy of Angela, Ben goes on a ride along with James. James does not like Ben.

Kevin Hart as Ben and Ice Cube as James

To mess with Ben, James tells dispatch to send him all the 1-26’s that are called into the police station. James makes Ben take care of the 1-26’s. James doesn’t believe that Ben can be helpful. Ben is unable to restrain the disorderly Crazy Cody (Gary Owen). Crazy Cody happens to be a friend of James; James plays poker with James. Ben learns from Angela that 1-26’s are annoying situations for newcomers to deal with. Ben becomes mad at James after seeing him laughing with  Crazy Cody and the police officers Santiago (John Leguizamo) and Miggs (Bryan Callen).

James has been undercover trying to find the mysterious Omar (Laurence Fishburne). Omar is the boss of serbian smugglers. He has been smuggling fake passports into Atlanta. No one has seen Omar, therefore, he is considered a ghost. James and Ben find out about a gun deal involving Omar’s men. Santiago informs James that Runflat (Jay Pharoah) has turned himself in; James and Ben talk to Runflat’s brother J to find out where the gun deal is going down. They find out that the location of the gun deal is in an abandoned warehouse. When they get there, James tells Ben to stay in the car. When James goes inside the warehouse, he is betrayed by Santiago and Miggs. James is tied up. Ben comes into the warehouse to screw up the gun deal. He pretends to be Omar, which works all right until the real Omar shows up. After a shootout, James and Ben escape with the money. Unfortunately for them, Santiago, Miggs, and Omar also escape.

Santiago and Miggs show up at Angela’s apartment and tie her up. James and Ben go to Angela’s apartment to save her. James injures Miggs and fights Santiago. Angela hits Santiago in the head with a frying pan, just as he was about to shoot James. Omar  kidnaps Angela and leaves the apartment with the money, but James follows him. Ben shows up and saves the day. Omar, Miggs, and Santiago are arrested by the police. Ben finally gets James’s approval to marry Angela.

Ben and James in Ride Along

Ride Along was a pretty funny movie. Kevin Hart was the best part of it. He had many funny one-liners. I liked the part where he’s talking to a little boy, and the boy calls him a “little man;” the boy says that Ben hasn’t gone through puberty yet. I was surprised that I laughed as much as I did, given that most movie critics panned the movie. Yes, Ride Along was rather silly, but it was not stupid. I liked the dynamic between Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. Kevin Hart was the funny man, while Ice Cube played the straight man. Kevin Hart was goofing off a lot of the time, while Ice Cube was constantly serious.

Ride Along was a pretty good comedy. It was also a different take on the buddy cop movie. James and Ben were not buddies at first, but by the end of the movie, they were somewhat friendly to each other. The ending of Ride Along left it open for the possibility of a sequel. I would give Ride Along a B-. I recommend it to fans of comedies, fans of action films, fans of buddy cop films, fans of Kevin Hart, and fans of Ice Cube.

Divergent: A Mostly Faithful Adaptation Of The Book

Divergent

I just watched Divergent, the film adaptation of the first book in Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. Divergent stars Shailene Woodley as Tris Prior and Theo James as Four.

Divergent

Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago. When a person reaches the age of sixteen, they must decide what faction they belong in. Beatrice and her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) were born into Abnegation; Beatrice decides to leave Abnegation so that she can join Dauntless, while Caleb decides to leave Abnegation in favor of Erudite.

In the book, Beatrice and Caleb’s parents did not introduce them to Jeanine Matthews, the leader of Erudite. In the film, though, Beatrice and Caleb’s mom and dad (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) introduce their children to Jeanine Matthews (a very evil Kate Winslet). Much like the book, the film adaptation is violent. However, the knife stabbing scene in the book was not in the film adaptation, thus causing Edward to stay in Dauntless instead of becoming one of the Factionless.

Beatrice changes her name to Tris when she joins Dauntless; she begins training and must fight with the other transfers. She is not the best fighter. Tris becomes friends with Christina (Zoe Kravitz), a transfer from Candor. Christina says whatever is on her mind because she is honest; honesty is one of the traits of someone from Candor. 

Tris and Four in Divergent

When Beatrice took the test to determine which faction she belongs to, she found out that she could be in three different factions. She found out that this means her brain works differently; she is Divergent. Divergence is very dangerous, and if the wrong people find out about someone being Divergent, they will kill that person. When Beatrice joins Dauntless, she must hide her Divergence from everyone. However, her instructor, Four, finds out that Tris is Divergent when Tris goes through a simulation of fears. He decides to protect her because he is also Divergent and knows how dangerous that is.

Tris must deal with a bully named Peter (Miles Teller) who dislikes her because she is a “Stiff.” “Stiff” is a derogatory word for someone who’s from Abnegation. Tris is attacked by Peter, Drew, and Al, but Four saves her from being thrown into the chasm. Al apologizes to Tris, but Tris won’t accept his apology. Al jumps to his death. He was not going to make it in Dauntless.  Tris feels that Al’s suicide was her fault because she was mean to him before he died.

Tris finds out that Four’s real name is Tobias Eaton. His father is Marcus Eaton, one of Abnegation’s leaders. There were rumors that Marcus abused Tobias; those rumors were true.  Tris finds out why Four is called Four—-she sees in his fear landscape that he has only four fears.  Four is afraid of his father. One of Four’s fears is heights, which we see when Tris and Four climb the ferris wheel to search for Eric’s (Jai Courtney) team’s flag. 

Pretty soon, the members of Dauntless become victims to a simulation. They are supposed to go to Abnegation and kill the members of Abnegation. Most people are asleep, but Tris is awake. Tris is reunited with her mom, who dies trying to save her. She is later reunited with her brother and father. Her father also dies trying to protect her.  Tris, Caleb, and Marcus go to Dauntless, where they meet up with Four. Tris makes Four see that it’s really her (Four had a gun pointed at Tris). Tris makes Jeanine stop what she was doing and tells her to end the simulation. Jeanine does what Tris tells her to do, even though she doesn’t want to. 

There is a lot of action in Divergent. I liked Divergent a lot. It was a little different from the book, but it was a mostly faithful adaptation. I would recommend Divergent to fans of the book series, fans of dystopian /post apocalyptic book and movies, and fans of action/adventure movies. I would give Divergent a A-.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass—An Action-Packed Book

 

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass is the third book in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. In this book, Clary must go to Idris, the country of the Shadowhunters, to find the warlock Ragnor Fell. Ragnor Fell had given Clary’s mother a potion that caused her to fall asleep. Jace does not want Clary going to Idris. He plans to use a portal with Alec and Isabelle. However, Jace and the others find themselves under attack by demons and must leave through the portal immediately. Jace, who had been talking to Simon, is forced to bring Simon along because he doesn’t want Simon to be killed by a demon.

Because of Jace’s early departure with the Lightwoods, Clary is unable to use the portal. The portal had been destroyed. Clary creates her own portal, but Luke tries to stop her from using it. Clary and Luke are transported to Lake Lyn, which is located outside the city. Because Clary swallowed the water from Lake Lyn, she begins to have hallucinations; she sees a gravestone with her name on it. Luke must take her to his sister’s house so that she can get medical attention.

When it is discovered that a Downworlder was brought to Alicante, trouble ensues. The new Inquisitor, Inquisitor Aldertree, throws Simon in prison. Inquisitor Aldertree is just as crazy as Inquisitor Herondale was. The new Inquisitor wants Simon to admit that he’s a spy for Valentine; he wants him to betray the Lightwoods. Simon is asked many questions, which he refuses to answer. He doesn’t want to tell the Inquisitor about drinking Jace’s blood because he fears that Jace will get in trouble. While in prison, Simon makes friends with a prisoner in the next cell. The prisoner calls himself Samuel, but we later learn that he is in fact, Hodge Starkweather, the tutor at the New York Institute.

A mysterious new character is introduced. His name is Sebastian Verloc. He is supposedly the cousin of Aline, another new character. Sebastian Verloc seems interested in Clary. Jace does not like or trust Sebastian. We find out that Sebastian is not who he pretends to be; he is the real Jonathan Morgenstern. This means that Jace is not Clary’s brother. Jace, who always thought he was a Wayland, finds out that he is not a Wayland —he is a Herondale. He also finds out that he is not Valentine’s son.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass book cover

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass has a lot of humor in it. For example, Aline says of Simon, “He’s kind of cute for a vampire.” Aline is then told to shut up. There is also a lot of action in the book. There is a short battle at the beginning of the book, in which Madeleine, Jocelyn’s friend, dies. The rest of the book leads up to a big battle against Valentine and an army of demons. Unfortunately for Valentine, the battle only lasts about ten minutes. Valentine summons an angel who refuses to do his bidding, and kills him instead.

I really liked this book. I liked how Jocelyn woke up and came to the Shadowhunter country. I knew that Clary was going to be mad at her for keeping secrets from her. I was surprised to find out that Jocelyn loved Luke. I look forward to their wedding in The Mortal Instruments: City of Fallen Angels. I also think it’s interesting how Simon became a sort of rock star vampire in that there are two girls vying for his affection. Which will he choose: Maia or Isabelle?

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass film poster

I would recommend The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass to fans of The Mortal Instruments series. I also recommend it to fans of fantasy, action /adventure, and horror novels. I would give The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass an A+.

The Little Drummer Girl: Suspenseful Thriller Set In The Middle East

The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre

I noticed while I was reading The Little Drummer Girl, that John Le Carre makes it seem as if Israelis are worse than Palestinians in terms of their terrorist actions. In the introduction, Le Carre writes, “[…] one Israeli bomb, falling on one camp in South Lebanon, killed more Palestinians in one afternoon than all the Zionists killed by Palestinians in a year… this wasn’t killing, this was war… this was self-defence…” (xviii). As we can see from this quote, the Israelis only attack the Palestinians when they feel threatened. They know how to kill people. Le Carre presents Palestinians as being clueless about how to correctly set off a bomb. In the beginning of the novel, a bomb goes off, but it goes off later than expected (12 hours later!). Also, the terrorist’s intended target was not among the dead.

When we get introduced to Charlie, the actress, things get complicated. Charlie is very political. We begin to see her views when she and Kurtz are talking about the Israelis and Arabs in the Middle East. She states, “I just want you to leave the poor bloody Arabs alone,” […] “Stop bombing their camps. Driving them off their land. Bulldozing their villages. Torturing them. […] “I just want peace,” […] (128).  What’s interesting about Charlie is that she doesn’t personally know any Arabs or Israelis, and yet she feels bad for the Arabs’ situation. Kurtz asks her how she feels about what the Arabs are doing to the Israelis, and she doesn’t have an answer.  Charlie has been kidnapped because of her politics. She is asked to do an acting job, in which she pretends to be the lover of a Palestinian terrorist, whom she’s never met, in order to bring about the capture of his brother who is the leader of a Palestinian terrorist group that is responsible for a series of bombings. At first, everything is going according to plan, but then Charlie’s cover is blown, and she fears she might be killed or arrested.

I thought The Little Drummer Girl was very confusing because there were so many characters to keep track of. Also many characters had multiple identities, which made it hard for me to track who was who. I didn’t like how new characters were introduced late in the book, although I knew we had to meet Khalil eventually. I liked how Le Carre wrapped up the book by tying up the loose ends. I did feel sad for Charlie because her acting career fell apart, but given what she’s been through, I’m not surprised that that happened. I liked how Charlie ended up with Joseph at the end.